More Dollars than Political Will

An interesting bit of trivia is floating around in the press these days. It seems that between 2002 and 2009, nearly one billion dollars was given to organizations that support abortion in some way. In fact, those dollars were taxpayer dollars. Catholic News Service informs us that the recent GAO report “looked at government funding given to Advocates for Youth (AFY), the Guttmacher Institute (AGI), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), Population Council of the United States (PCI) and Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).”

In addition, American Life League’s Rita Diller combed PPFA’s annual reports and found out that it actually took in more than two billion in tax dollars between fiscal years 2002 and 2008. Yet it only spent $657.1 million. So where did the rest of the money go?

The results of these reports are staggering, particularly given the fact that America is in dire financial straits. Diller points out that for the majority of Americans who consider themselves pro-life, a few questions need to be cleared up!

“Someone … needs to explain to all those people why $2.3 billion in tax dollars have been doled out to an organization that admits to systematically having killed more than 1.8 million preborn babies between 2002 and 2008 and then reports it only spent $657.1 million in federal dollars.”

As an aside, the title of Diller’s Washington Times exposé was “Planned Parenthood’s missing millions,” which led at least one reader to ask whether it was referring to the number of dead babies or dollars.

And then there’s the blame game. While it is true that Obama has carried the funding forward and increased it in many cases, he is not the first president to provide Planned Parenthood those tax dollars out of our pockets. No, that would be the president who signed Title X of the Public Health Service Act into law in 1970, Richard M. Nixon.

Since that time, there has never been a president who has worked to end this debacle. This is why the culture-of-death stalwarts continue to receive the fuel that operates their machinery.

Some claim that we have had presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, for example, who are heroes to at least the political segments of the pro-life movement. But even these two alleged defenders of the pro-life position lifted not a single finger, or even a fingernail, to stop the funding. So why make this a partisan issue?

After all, if a man like President Ronald Reagan didn’t stand up to the apostles of death, why can’t pro-life Americans be honest enough to admit that funding for such groups transcends partisan politics?

Here’s a clue. In order to oppose taxpayer funding for organizations like PPFA, AGI and SIECUS, a leader has to be prepared to stand up to what would certainly be one of the most vociferous and long-lasting media tirades in our history.

This person would have to set forth the facts. He or she would have to gather up the courage to point out that the government has no business in population control advocacy, birth control advocacy or abortion advocacy. And should a politician do this, he would need the public, vocal support of the entire United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the evangelical community and other religious organizations with a grasp of this truth: that the only legitimate role of government is to defend and protect its citizens.

That’s all it would take. But upon reflecting back on the past 40 years of political posturing, I confess that such a person may not exist. Or if he or she does exist, then perhaps that person has already decided that the American system of justice toward the innocent is so debilitated at this point that there are better things to do in the service of God and country.

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